


Surprising Revelations

by Merfilly



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-19
Updated: 2014-03-19
Packaged: 2018-01-16 06:28:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1335445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Slade decides to go after Cheshire, well before Qurac, to remove a rival in the business. Only it's not as clean a hunt as he wanted. Still, he knows how to make a profit off that child in her personal room.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Surprising Revelations

**Author's Note:**

> Written in serial format on Livejournal, uncertain why it was never completed.

Slade Wilson was a man who hated surprises. He enjoyed a good, clean hunt, where the prey went down with a good fight. In this case, he was willing to skip the fight, because revenge was a side dish. He had been hired to take out Cheshire, the one other assassin he really did not care to share the world with.

And she turned out to have a kid.

He had killed parents before. Hell, he had killed kids of people he had known, in the case of some of the drug cartels he went against.

But he had never truly orphaned anyone he could think of, with all the intel he did.

Knowing Chesh, this kid's father was probably already toast. He made his way cautiously over, inspecting the infant in the crib.

An infant with bright red hair.

The glimmer of a rumor flashed through Slade's mind, and he smiled, continuing his hunt to Cheshire's personal area, just beyond this room.

Not only would he have his revenge and a healthy paycheck, but he was about to put a Titan in his hip pocket for life.

* * *

Roy Harper sometimes hated life. Coming into his apartment, in the Tower for cryin' out loud, to find a personal invitation from Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke the Terminator, was one of those events that made him hate life.

//How the fuck did he get in here? Did he crack the access codes again?!// He re-read the note, shaking his head violently, and swearing in his birth language as he considered how best to deal with this. //The best way to deal with this would be to ignore it! You know better than to trust him...//

As he was telling himself to do just that, he noted a smaller envelope had fallen to the side when he picked up the invitation. It held a news clipping, that one Jade Nguyen had been identified in Hong Kong, dead.

//...Jade? He... killed Jade?// Despite himself, he still loved the sociopathic bitch, and the thought that Slade had taken her out just pissed him off... But Slade wouldn't be inviting him to a meeting just to gloat over her death. Not unless the man had turned suicidal while he wasn't paying attention.

* * *

Slade was sitting at a table at the furthest end of the café's sidewalk. He was in civilian attire, and Roy could not immediately spot any weapons, though he knew better than make any assumptions.

"Harper."

"Wilson." Roy pulled a chair back to sit down, eyes narrowed behind the shades. "...Either you decided to gloat for some screwed up reason, or there's something up about Jade that I ought to know... so which is it?" 

"Perceptive, at least a little." Slade inclined his head. "She had something of yours. Something I retrieved."

//He just... huh?// Roy arched a brow, cocking his head to the side slightly, "What?"

The mercenary gave his infamous smirk for answer. "Kid, you really ought to learn to be more careful when you hook up with the ladies."

"...No. No. Way. No, no, no..."

Slade shrugged. "Have it your way, Harper. The kid's a charmer; has Wintergreen wrapped already."

"...I... but... You are not keeping my kid just because I'm a little in shock right now..."

There was a low answering chuckle. "So, talk to me. What do I get for being the stork?"

"...that's a hell of an image..." //Think fast, Roy, think Fast...// "What the heck would somebody like you possibly want from me? You know what a government employee makes--hell, you know what the Titans pull down, as far as that goes."

Slade got a very serious look in his eye, leaned forward, and made Roy look right at him. "Your word, to let me pass, once. And only if I call for the pass."

//No way. (It's your kid) It's Deathstroke. (You want him to have your kid?) ..That sounded wrong. (Shut up and answer.) HELL NO! Look what happened to Joey!// "Once.... Once I can do. How long after the pass do I get to go back to hunting you?" //You just agreed to let him go! (So what? It's a kid. Your kid. Not leaving him, her (please not her) in his hands...)//

"Twenty four hours." Slade was confident if he ever called on it, the twenty-four hours would be enough of a gap to throw even Harper's skills.

"Done," Roy said, knowing he would probably seriously regret this at some point, but unable to do anything else, and before Slade could prompt him, "My word on it."

Slade pulled out a mobile phone and dialed a number. "Bring the infant."

Within ten minutes, Wintergreen arrived, carrying a bundle in his arms, with a large bag over one shoulder. The older man looked positively bemused as he stopped at their table. He sighed as he handed the bundle to Roy, letting him see a child with this very bright red hair, and a slight Asian cast to its features.

Roy took the bundle awkwardly, trying to be careful with it, "...huh. Guess there wasn't much doubt whose this kid is... Hey, kid. Thanks, Wintergreen. Slade... thank you. For bringing... her? to me."

"Cheshire said her name was Lian, if you wish to keep it," Slade told him, showing a hint of emotion for having killed the mother of the child. "She is a lovely child."

"And easy to care for, as far as such things go, Harper." Wintergreen set the bag down. "Formula, bottles, nappies, and other things."

Roy gave him an absolutely grateful look, and shifted the baby in his arms a little. "Lian, hm? It's a good name..." //What am I supposed to do with a baby?!//

"Be careful with her, Roy. Children are a treasure not to be taken lightly," Slade warned, rising and sliding his hands into his pockets.

"Indeed, they are," Wintergreen said softly, and the two men left the new father with his tiny bundle.

* * *

A panicked phone call to Seattle netted Roy an invitation to come out there, even if Dinah had been squawking that she knew absolutely nothing about infants. Ollie had held an odd note in his voice but was at least being supportive and non-judgmental.

That left Roy to get back to the Tower, where the reaction ranged from outright shock to humor to a very practical Joe Wilson taking the baby and letting Roy talk to everyone about it.

"Thanks, Joey," Roy said as he sighed and dropped down onto a chair to stare at everyone, sunglasses shoved back off his face.

"Where did the child come from?" Raven finally asked him, as the babble of shock died down.

Roy sighed and shot a hard look at Joey, despite that the other teen currently was holding his child. "She's... well, it's pretty certain she's mine."

"The red hair is a give away there," Gar said helpfully.

"Yeah, kinda. I mean, given how much her mother hates--hated, I guess--most men, yeah... Joey, please don't drop her, but she's Cheshire's, too."

There was silence for a long moment, but Joey just shook his head. "Parentage doesn't matter as much as raising," he pointed out, signing with one hand only, before he went back to securing a bottle of formula. He had seen some of his mother's agents deal with their kids at least, when they would keep him while she was on mission.

"True." Kory had reason to believe that, with how her sister had turned out in comparison to herself.

//You're pretty much living proof of that, Joe,// Roy thought with a slight smile as he nodded back. "Yeah--which has me scared to death, I mean, what the heck do I know about raising a kid?" He shook his head, "And I really don't like owing your father one for bringing her to me, but it's not like I was going to let him keep her..."

Joey jerked his head at that mention, then shook his head. "NO!" It was clear he had Addie's view of how Deathstroke and child-rearing meshed.

"So Deathstroke brought your kid from Cheshire to you?" Gar frowned. "One less terrorist in the world, but it's a shame the kid's got no mom."

Roy dropped his head, sighing, "Yeah. I mean... I was crazy about her before I had to leave, and now I've got this kid, she's gone, and I am so freaking lost..."

Joey paused at the kitchen door to sign back at him. "Could ask mother to come here…" he offered. He was pretty sure he could convince her to come give Roy a crash course in raising a kid.

Roy thought about that, considering his friends and their relatives... and he realized with a shock that Joey was probably the only one that had had anything resembling a normal early life, or that had a parent they could ask. Freaky, when the mercenaries' kid was the normal one. "I'm going to Seattle first, but... that'd probably be good--shut up 'Wing, I'm going to Dinah. I promised."

Nightwing clamped his jaw shut hard.

"Will ask her while you are gone." Joey continued into the kitchen, juggling the baby and the bottle, so he could get it warmed up for her.

"We'll see about getting your room expanded, and all the things a baby needs," Vic said, eyes glazing as he thought of what would need to be done.

"Thanks, guys," Roy said as he bit down on a crazy impulse to follow Joey. "I... thanks. I need to go book that flight, while Joey's got Lian."

* * *

Dinah was the one to pick him up at the airport. She had even gotten an infant seat for her compact car, a far cry from the bikes he was used to seeing her with. She kissed his cheek and took the baby, cuddling her close for a long moment before securing her in the seat with a little trouble. He noted a shadow cross her face, but let it go.

Dinah insisted on carrying Lian inside, and Roy was apprehensive enough that he was looking for Ollie as they stepped in. So he saw the full pain cross his mentor's face before it was hidden, at the sight of Dinah cuddling the baby close, speaking softly in Vietnamese to her.

//What the--what happened? First Dinah, now Ollie? What'd I walk into?// "Hey, old man." He couldn't help the tightness in his voice, but he was freaked enough to not mind leaning a little on Ollie again--until the second the old man did something. He'd sounded eager to help on the phone, though...

Ollie managed to keep the pain out of his voice when he spoke, his eyes and face lighting up to see how much Roy had grown since they last saw him. "Hey there, my boy."

"Roy, I'm going to put her in the bassinet to sleep, since she's all but out," Dinah said, leaving the two men alone.

"Okay, Dinah." After a moment, what she'd said registered. //Bassinet?// "You guys went shopping?" He walked over to Ollie, looking the way Dinah had gone. "Okay, old man... what's going on? You and Di both..."

"Dinah did the shopping while I found books," Ollie admitted, a little gruffly. "But…don't worry on it, kid. We're not hurting for the money lately." He sighed. "I really don't know what to tell you about what's going on." He looked helpless as he glanced down at the books he had mentioned.

"Alright. I'll let it go." Seeing Ollie looking helpless still rattled him--it just wasn't right--and he lifted his hand to Ollie's shoulder, squeezing it. "So just tell me, Ollie. If you two're hurting..."

"She can't have kids, Roy. Just found out a few days ago." Ollie fiddled with one of the books. "She didn't want any, and then she did…only to find out what that bastard did to her…"

"Aw, shit..." Roy's eyes went flat at the reminder. He hadn't been there for her, he'd been too far undercover to even know until it was all over... And now he'd packed a kid to her door, reminding her of what she couldn't have. "Why'd she tell me to come, Ollie, if..."

Ollie shook his head. "Because, Roy…you're her Boy-o. She would no sooner have said no than walk away from a fight with Count Vertigo."

Roy sighed softly, then nodded. "Okay. Y'got a point. ...Ollie, what the hell am I supposed to do with a kid? I barely take care of myself sometimes! Joey took her to feed her, and Kory tried to sing her to sleep... Wing and I figured out the whole changing thing, we think, but..." he trailed off, looking at the closest thing he had to a parent in dismay.

Ollie picked up a book, placed it in Roy's hands, and grinned. "Darnedest thing, they do make manuals for the tykes." He laughed softly. "Di and I were up half the night looking through these. And, really, Roy, it can't be that hard, considering how many billions of people there are in the world."

Roy laughed, shaking his head, "Okay. Manuals I can deal with. At least they'll give me some kind of a clue--and I wouldn't be so sure about that, look how many of 'em don't turn out so great, too..." 

Ollie reached out, squeezing his former sidekick's shoulder in turn. "And some turn out more than great, despite the people hanging around."

//Or not hanging around?// Roy managed to keep the thought behind his teeth--and mostly out of his eyes--and couldn't help flushing at the compliment. He looked down at the book to hide it, and cracked it open. "So, guess I ought to get started with this, huh? You said you'd been reading, where should I start?"

"Figure out how old she is, and jump to that chapter; it goes by age," Ollie said, fighting the urge to apologize, again, for past mistakes. He knew his words on that meant nothing to this young man he was so proud of.

"Last time I saw Chesh was..." Roy thought about that, mentally shuffling dates in his head. "Nine months later would've been... Okay." He flipped through the pages, eyeing the headers to find the right spot.


End file.
